How to Dye Black Hair Blonde

If you've dyed your hair black or have naturally black hair, going from black to blonde hair can be one of the most arduous processes.

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If you've dyed your hair black or have naturally black hair, going from black to blonde hair can be one of the most arduous processes. It is certainly doable however, and you can take even the darkest hair color, natural or otherwise to the lightest blonde color as long as your hair is already in good condition and you haven't damaged it with other chemical treatments in the past.

Can you dye black hair blonde?

If you want to go from black to blonde hair, you need to understand that the process is very intensive and not all hair should be subjected to it. If you've dyed your hair with black hair dye, that doesn't matter too much, although it will slow down the procedure and require an extra step. The crucial element here is the condition of your hair.

If your hair has been damaged in the past, or you have fine, thin hair, bleaching black hair is not advisable for you. The best candidates for dyeing black hair blonde are those who have naturally strong, and currently healthy hair that can be bleached without worrying about problems.

Those who should not attempt to dye their black hair blonde include:

Anyone who has had a perm or relaxing treatment

Anyone who has bleached their hair extensively in the past

Anyone who has fine, thin hair

If your hair isn't subject to the contraindications above, you can proceed to dyeing it blonde.

Dyed hair vs virgin hair

If your hair has been dyed before and the artificial hair color hasn't grown out yet, you would be wise to take the extra step of color removal before you begin bleaching black hair and progressing towards blonde. Hair that hasn't been dyed or where the color has fully grown out, is considered to be virgin hair, and will be highly responsive to the lightening process. If you have virgin hair, the entire process will be significantly easier for you.

Furthermore, if you have dyed your hair black several times, the artificial color will be deeply entrenched in the hair and far more difficult to remove. In most cases, it takes 2 - 3 processes before you can reach blonde when bleaching black hair that has been dyed several times in the past. In order to reduce the amount of bleach you need to use, if you have dyed your hair black, you should use hair dye remover to strip out as much as the color as possible.

What is hair dye remover?

Permanent hair dye works through the chemical process of oxidation. When you first pierce the tube of the color preparation, the majority of the dye pigment exists as colorless molecules called intermediates. These molecules are small enough to penetrate into the hair shaft, but they have no actual dye color by themselves.

The oxidation from the peroxide in the hair dye allows these molecules to be combined with other compounds and the new larger molecule not only now has a color, but is too large to fit back out of the cuticles. The dye is therefore trapped in the hair shaft and causes your hair to look the color of the dye, and become permanent.

Hair dye remover is an extremely useful product because it can reverse the process that made the dye permanent and caused these molecules to become colored. The dye remover breaks down the artificial color molecules into their smaller parts, and these can then be simply washed out of the hair again. As if by magic, the color vanishes in a matter of minutes.